


Moments in Melody

by Runic



Series: 30 Day Challenges [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: 30 Day OTP Challenge, 30 Day iTune Shuffle Challenge, M/M, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-23
Updated: 2013-08-11
Packaged: 2017-12-12 16:44:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/813757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runic/pseuds/Runic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>30 moments between Loki and Tony inspired by music.</p><p>Based on the 30 Day iTune shuffle OTP challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Safe In the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> My original plan was to not post any of these until I had finished all 30. Well, I am impatient, so that is not going to happen.
> 
> My list, for those of you who want to check it out: [Runic's Shuffle List](http://aonorunic.tumblr.com/post/50945857111/30-day-itune-shuffle-otp-challenge)
> 
>  
> 
> [Safe In the Dark - Ludo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSJtt4RG7jI)

_The darkness was closing in, consuming everything in its wake. He was falling, falling away, but the darkness was coming on fast. There were things in the darkness, waiting to catch him, wanting to tear him apart. He wasn’t falling fast enough. Wait, the suit was down. There was no way for him to stop falling. Faster, faster, faster. The darkness was so close, speeding up like some demonic thing desperate to catch its prey, desperate to catch_ him _. He was okay with falling, he was okay with dying, just so long as the darkness didn’t catch him._

_It was coming, closer and closer. It was coming for him. Always for him. The void, the defeating silence, the maddening silence, so loud he could hear his blood pumping in his veins, swallowed up everything around him. He wanted to scream, but all he could do was close his eyes and let a completely different kind of darkness overtake him._

Tony awoke with a start, a small scream escaping his lips as his body shot upright. When he realized where he was, safe in his own bed, in Avengers Tower surrounded by the greatest superheroes in the world, he covered his hands with his face and groaned.

“JARVIS,” he called out, his hands still in front of his mouth, “what time is it?”

“2:43a.m., sir,” the A.I. reported.

Tony groaned again and fell back on the covers, arms going limp and sprawling out in ever which direction.

“Nightmares, Stark?” a smooth voice asked.

Tony shot back up. He knew that voice. When he didn’t dream of the void, he dreamt of glass shattering around him and that voice echoed in his ears. Always, always he was falling, the world rushing up to meet him. “This had better not be one of those stupid double dream things.”

“Do you believe you are dreaming?” Loki asked. The Trickster stepped out of the shadows to take a seat at the foot of Tony’s bed.

“No,” Tony answered, eyes locked and glaring on his uninvited guest. “That just wouldn’t be my luck.”

“Oh?” Loki seemed genuinely surprised, but Tony didn’t believe that for a second. “Your suit caught you before your bones shattered against the ground. You escaped the void just before the portal closed. And when your suit failed you, the beast came to your rescue.”

Tony blinked a few times in confusion. “Your bedside manner could use some work.”

Loki actually laughed; not humorous and light, but dark and broken. “Most likely, but it was not my intention to comfort you this night.”

“So what was?” Tony snapped. “You get your kicks from my nightmares?”

Loki remained silent for a long time, looking away from Tony. He was seriously beginning to think that he should call someone when Loki finally answered. “I fell through the void as well, for more than a year.”

Tony’s mind immediately rebelled against the very thought. Everything, his racing heart, clammy skin, tense muscles, all screamed against such a thing. There were things in the void, he had seen them out of the corner of his eye when he fell, and Loki had spent _more than a year_ in that environment. No wonder he was so broken and fucking crazy. What the fuck had found him within that darkness?

“I know what it is to wish to be safe in the dark,” Loki said softly, just above a whisper.

“Why did you come here?” Tony asked again, this time with less hostility.

Loki finally turned back to him. Those green eyes were tired, so different from the crazed expression Tony had first seen in them. Tony paused to study the god, to actually look at him. His eyes were framed by dark bags set against too pale skin. Loki’s hair turned up at odd angles, and his shoulders slumped in obvious weariness. So, the god wasn’t sleeping either then. He was doing absolutely nothing to hide his condition, one just had to be willing to look. “I guess I wanted to see if it had affected you the same way.”

And oh, did that revelation hit like a ton of bricks, or what. Tony’s brain was quickly sent recalculating everything he knew about the Trickster.

After moment Tony sighed, and fell back against the covers. He had a sneaking suspicion that this was the most honest Loki had been with anyone in a long time, and that was kind of terrifying. “I’m insane.”

“Most likely, yes.”

Tony threw back the covers in a highly dramatic fashion. “Oh shut up, and get over here.” Did he really just invite a guy who had nearly killed him a few months ago to sleep in the same bed as him? Yeah, that didn’t do anything for the argument against his insanity. But fuck it, Loki was right, Tony wanted to feel safe. He hadn’t been able to explain that to Pepper, and it had driven her away. But Loki knew, Tony didn’t have to explain anything, and he was so desperate for someone who understood.

Loki hesitated for a minute. Tony took a great deal of pleasure from being able to shock the God of Mischief. The god eventually started to crawl up the bed slowly, armor disappearing as he went, and settled himself on the other side of the bed, eyes never leaving Tony.

Neither of them said anything when Tony threw the blankets over them. Tony was falling again, falling and crashing over and over. This time when he woke panting, tears in his eyes, lithe fingers reached over to rub circles against his shoulder. It didn’t stop his heart from trying to leap out of his chest, or the tears sliding down his cheeks, but it was different.

Yeah, it was better.


	2. I Will Follow You Into the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is old, and so is Loki, but there is no fear near the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No actual character death in this one. More facing mortality than anything. 
> 
> I promise not all of these are going to be sad. It just so happened that all the sad songs found their way to the beginning of the list.
> 
> [I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDHY1D0tKRA)

Tony was old.

No, really, he’d fought as Iron Man for decades before relinquishing the fight to younger heroes, and then stayed on as an advisor for many years after that. The Tower had been filled with laughter in between fights. Those had been the best times, when everything was peaceful and they got to just be normal people. It was filled with tears when they lost one of their own, each loss another blow, another question. There were things Tony would go back and change if he could, but his life had been good. Tony was ending surrounded by good memories and people who loved him.

Speaking of, Loki was currently drawing random patterns over his chest with lithe fingers. The god’s head rested against Tony’s shoulder, tucked against his neck. It was a position they had found themselves in hundreds, if not thousands of times over the years. Loki had become his fuck buddy, somehow evolving into his lover without either of them noticing, his friend and confidant, the bad influence that dragged him down, and the good that pulled him back up. Loki was Heaven and Hell in one package deal, and Tony wouldn’t have it any other way.

He had noticed years ago the grey hairs, the deepening lines around Loki’s eyes, the laugh lines that were added to with each passing year. Tony had realized Loki was aging, slowly but progressively, that the god had given up immortality for him. A part of him screamed in terror. He hadn’t realized it was possible to love someone so much before that. But the other part of him, thankfully the stronger part, had held onto Loki and never let go.

Even still, he was Tony, and while he knew Loki would be with him when he passed, wherever it was they were going, Tony had never believed in that stuff before the God of Mischief had come through a portal leading to the other side of space and tried to take over the world, he was glad he was dying first. Okay, that sounded horrible, but if he had to watch Loki die, Tony…

“Stop thinking,” Loki ordered, the edge in his voice gone. They had sent everyone else away so as to spend the last hours of Tony’s life together in peace. Loki was the only one who looked at him in a way that didn’t remind Tony that he was dying.

Tony took a deep breath, tried to chuckle only to cough, and intertwined his knotted fingers with Loki’s still beautiful ones. “Not for a little while yet.”

Loki’s grip tightened on Tony’s hand. “That was mean.”

“I know,” Tony sighed. “Hey, get up here and kiss me.”

Loki shifted upwards, never letting go of Tony’s. He propped his head up on his free hand, and stared down at Tony. Tony used his own free hand to reach up slowly, placed it on the back of Loki’s neck and pulling him down, well more pressing until Loki gave in. The kiss was soft and loving, the type of kiss they had been afraid to exchange until they were confronted with Tony’s mortality.  “I love you.”

“I love you too, Tony,” Loki sighed.

“What are you going to do? When I’m gone, I mean.” It was the question Tony had avoided for so long now, but he couldn’t avoid it much longer, not if he wanted an answer.

“I will follow you into the dark,” Loki answered, resting his head back on Tony’s shoulder, hand placed over Tony’s heart.

Well okay, that was okay. The darkness was never all that scary when Loki was there with him.


	3. Love Love Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki was a criminal, no one, not even Loki, would deny that fact. His latest crime: thievery. The stolen item in question: Tony Stark’s heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys have no idea how much I love that this song made it onto the list. This was the first song on my frostiron playlist, and it’s one I’ve loved ever since I first heard it.
> 
> [Love Love Love - Of Monsters and Men](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz720CJ9z_M)

Loki was a criminal, no one, not even Loki, would deny that fact.

His latest crime: thievery.  
The stolen item in question: Tony Stark’s heart.

Not the false heart the inventor had built for himself, but his true heart, broken and damaged as it was. Loki could not be fully responsible for this. The blame lay at least partly with Stark himself. And maybe, for a moment, his own heart had stopped when he had discovered Stark passed out on the floor near his bar, blood flowing from the wound opened on his head and veins poisoned by drink.

The other Avengers came storming in. Loki faded into shadow and watched, watched as the good Captain futilely called out, watched as the beast knelt beside them, his hands shaking. Thor picked up Stark’s limp form from the floor, holding him close with one arm as he summoned wind with the other. Loki followed unseen after the others, waiting with them outside the hospital room. Whatever happened, Loki was absolutely not worried about Stark.

A few hours later the doctor walked out to inform them that Stark would be fine. Loki slipped past them all. Lithe fingers caressed Tony’s cheek. The inventor cracked one eye open and looked straight at him, despite the invisibility spell still being in place. “Why’d you leave?” he whispered.

The nurse fussing over him paused, inquiring as to what he had said. Loki ignored her and leaned down to murmur in Stark’s ear, “Because you fell in love with me.” And then he was gone again.

 

The event was hosted by Stark Industries, but the chances of Stark actually showing up were slim. Loki told himself that his appearance was merely to cause mischief. There was no other purpose. He had been three months from Stark’s bed, and yet the man still pinned for him.

But there he was. Stark looked up and the world froze. Their eyes met across the room, and everyone else, all unimportant, disappeared.  He could not look away, nor could Stark it seemed.

Loki was not sure how, not sure when, but somehow they had made it back to Stark’s room. Loki pressed the smaller man into the mattress, hungry lips devouring every bit of flesh they could reach. And Stark let him. By the Nine, the man still loved him despite everything Loki had put him through. Stark would give him everything if Loki only asked. He had already given Loki himself. Beneath him Stark groaned, and oh, there was so much love in his eyes. The stupid man.

Once Loki had finished he rolled to lie beside Stark, cool sheets against his back. Stark curled up to him, letting out a happy contented sigh as he threw his arm over Loki’s chest. His nose nuzzled against Loki’s neck, and he fell asleep like that against the Trickster.

Loki allowed him to hold on tight until near morning. Just as the first rays of light broke over the city skyline, Loki untangled himself from Stark’s limbs and slipped out of the bed. With a thought he was dressed once more.

“Where are you going?” Tony asked sleepily. The inventor stretched out, greedily moving over to the warmth Loki had left on the sheets. It took a moment for him to take in Loki’s state of dress. It woke him up immediately. “I love you.” _Please, don’t go. I don’t want you to leave again. Don’t go!_

Loki refused to look back at the human, keeping his eyes fixed on the growing daylight. “I think it is best we both forget,” Loki said softly. And then he was gone, for the last time. He would never again see Stark.

The man had loved when he knew a monster like Loki was incapable of loving him back. Best neither of them dwelled on it.


	4. Witch Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a fit of jealousy, Hammer accuses Loki of witchcraft. Tony’s moment of doubt will seal his lover’s fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although this story references the Catholic hierarchy, this story is completely AU, so the Church that is mentioned is really just an echo of what we have here.
> 
> [Witch Hunt - Megurine Luka](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpJtSKfbQdM)

“You understand the seriousness of your accusations?”

Hammer flinched under Bishop Fury’s harsh gaze, but somehow found the voice to answer. “I do, Your Grace. I would not have brought this to you otherwise.”

Fury took a deep breath and strode to the windows, looking out over the busy city. “Very well, Pastor. Take a group of guardsmen with you, and search his home. If you find evidence of witchcraft, you are to arrest Loki Silvertongue and bring him in for interrogation.”

/

Tony woke to the feel of fingers dancing lightly across his skin. He smiled and stretched, wrapping his arms around his lover and kissing him hard and slow, all before opening his eyes to Loki’s green ones. “Good morning, gorgeous.”

Loki smiled a bit wider at the praise, and dipped his head to kiss Tony’s shoulder. “Good morning, my king.”

Tony laughed, his fingers unconsciously exploring Loki’s skin. “Not for another week. I think Fury is going to have an aneurism when he places the crown on my head.”

“Hmm, I think it’s more likely he’ll try murdering you in some subtle way at the last second.”

“Keeling over the throne, not a very dignified way to go.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Loki stretched those gloriously long limbs of his, showing off for Tony. “At the very least the artists will take the event and make it dramatic.”

“True.” Tony shoved Loki onto his back, straddling the man and kissing him again. Loki wove his talented fingers into Tony’s hair, moaning into his mouth. “But I’m not quite done with you yet,” Tony said breathlessly when he pulled away, “so you will just have to deal with me a bit longer.”

Loki gave a long dramatic sigh. “If I must.”

“As your king, I said you mu-” Tony stopped and looked up when the sounds of shouting floated into the room. “Stay here,” he said, sliding off the bed.

Before he could reach the doors, the Inquisitors invited themselves in, Jarvis hot on their heels. “I am sorry, my prince. I tried to stop them.”

“Have you forgotten who I am?” Tony snapped at the men.

“Not even the privacy of royalty takes precedent over holy business,” the priest said as he made his to the head of the intruders. “Take him.”

“Hammer,” Tony growled, “what the hell-” The Inquisitors pushed past him to drag Loki out of bed. “What are you doing!”

“Tony!”

Hammer ignored Tony, glaring in disgust at Loki’s naked form. “One of you, spare him a cloak. He has not been accused yet.”

Tony rushed forward and grabbed a hold of Hammer’s arm. The Inquisitors continued to carry out their business, covering Loki and leading him away while Loki screamed his name. “Guards, stop them!”

“Need I remind you the consequences of interfering with Church business?” Hammer snapped. “And right now, your defense of him is only more harmful.”

“What is this about? What is he being accused of?”

“Witchcraft,” Hammer finally said, motioning for the men to take Loki away. “We have found evidence that Loki Silvertongue has consorted with the dark arts, all to win him the love of a king.”

Tony dropped Hammer’s arm in shock, eyes snapping to Loki. “It’s not true!” Loki shouted before the Inquisitors dragged him out of sight. “Tony, it is not true!”

He stood there in shock, unable to process how the morning had gone horrible so quickly. “You would do well to stay out of this investigation. You have already brought scandal to your crown, you would be unwise to make an enemy of the Church now.”

That sent Tony into action. He just barely kept himself from punching the priest. “Why are you doing this?”

“It is my duty to root out evil before it can take hold.”

“Really? Because I think this has to do more with the fact that I rejected you in favor of Loki.”

“Do not flatter yourself,” Hammer sneered. “The world is not concerned solely with you, _Prince_ Anthony.”

/

Loki did not look up when Hammer stepped into his cell. He already knew what his sentence would be. It had taken three months to be handed down, and in that time Tony had been crowned king. But his lover had not come for him. Hammer had planted the seed of doubt in Tony’s mind against him, and it made Tony hesitate. If Tony was not willing to intervene on his behalf, then Loki knew there would be no one coming to help him.

“Loki Silvertongue,” the priest spoke down to him, “you have been accused of witchcraft and treason, the most heinous of crimes. The Righteous Court has tried you, and found you guilty. You have been sentenced to death by burning at the stake. One last chance shall be presented to you for you to repent. It will not save your life, but it may very well save your soul. I suggest you take it.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Loki saw a guard hand Hammer a dagger. The priest shoved him forward, not that it was truly necessary, and took a handful of Loki’s long dark hair. In a quick motion, Hammer looped off Loki’s hair up to his ears, dropping the cut tresses onto the cell floor. It was the mark of the condemned. Now there was no denying it, he was well and truly abandoned.

/

“Why do you worship the old gods?”

Bruce looked up from the letter he was reading as Tony slumped into a chair across from him. “I do not worship them. I do, however, believe in them based on the evidence given to us.” He fell back into silence, knowing Tony would eventually tell him why he had asked in the first place.

“Loki is going to be executed tomorrow.”

Bruce nodded slowly. “I expected as much.”

“I could save him. If I chose to worship the old gods, I could save him.”

“And damn your kingdom,” Bruce added. “The Church has footholds in all the neighboring kingdoms, not to mention their following here. You would alienate your own people.”

“I know,” Tony finally admitted. “But it’s Loki. How can I stand by and watch him die? I…I believed them for a moment, I doubted that I truly loved Loki, and now he is going to pay the price for it.”

“You are a king,” Bruce reminded him, because it seemed someone needed to before Tony did something stupid. “You do not get the luxury of being selfish.”

“But-but!” Tony shot up, face eager and eyes desperate. “What if I gave up the throne? What if I stole him from the dungeons and spirited him away tonight. We could live on our own, as commoners! I would give up everything for him.”

“Tony.” Bruce sighed, hating that he was the one having to talk Tony out of this, but as the king’s head advisor, it was his duty to guide the king in what was best for the kingdom. “You have no heir. The kingdom would dissolve into civil war over who would claim your throne. I know you, you’d feel every death as if you had killed them with your own hands.”

“Because it would be my fault they died.” Tony let his head slump forward again. “If I can’t save him, then I will avenge him. I will work against the Church at every turn. I will see them brought low and ruined within this kingdom. I will push until they end up destroying themselves.”

Bruce did not respond. He could not respond. He saw Tony’s eyes darken and heard the sincerity in his voice. He knew then that Fury had created his own destruction.

/

Tony tuned out Hammer’s words, his false accusations and preaching against the evils that was Loki. The Inquisitors dragged Loki through the screaming crowd, pushing them back as they spat and cursed him. It was only Bruce that kept Tony from running to his lover’s side. Everything his advisor had said last night, every last horrible word, echoed in his head. Loki was going to die, and he could not do anything to stop him.

Loki held his head up in challenge, not flinching as the guards tied his hands behind his back and then to the stake. Tony couldn’t do the same. He closed his eyes, but the image of Loki defiant was burned into his eyelids.

“Do you repent?” It was the first thing he had truly heard Hammer say all day. Old gods, it was so close now.

Loki glared at the man. “If you call this love black magic, then light the flames of hatred.”

It took every ounce of will Tony had to keep standing. He forced his eyes open, forced them to meet Loki’s. _‘I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry, Loki,’_ he tried to say.

But that look in Loki’s eyes told him he was not forgiven. Tony would be haunted by that look for the rest of his days.

“The witch has refused to repent! Send him to Hell!” Hammer ordered.

The Inquisitor strode forward with the torch, and Tony broke. “No!” he shouted. He made to tackle the man, but Bruce and Steve caught him, both whispering apologies he could not hear over his own screams.

“Once the witch is dead, his hold over you will be broken.”

Tony let lose a scream of primal anger and broke loose, punching the priest in the face, the satisfying sound of cartilage breaking beneath his fist filling the air around them.

“Tony!” Bruce pulled him back. “Tony, look!”

The last thing in the world Tony wanted to do was look, but the green flash was enough to draw his eyes. The Inquisitors had lit the flames, but the flames had turned green, the same shade as Loki’s.  “There is only one being who is connected to green fire,” Bruce said softly, his voice filled with something close to awe.

“Loki.” The name slipped from Tony’s lips as he stared at the god. His lover was not named for Loki, he was the old god, Loki, embodiment of sorcery and chaos. The Church had just tried to kill an old god, and Tony had stood by without doing anything to stop them.

The flames swept upward, reaching into the sky impossibly high. The sound was deafening, and Tony was forced to close his eyes against the brightness. Just as quickly, it died down. Loki was gone, but the flames had scorched the courtyard, marking forever where the Church had made their ultimate mistake.

_‘I will destroy them all, Loki,’_ Tony allowed himself to think in the form of prayer, hoping the god could hear him. _‘I will make them pay for this.’_


End file.
